Economies, Cultures & Consumption

This strand addresses the relationship between markets and societies from the Middle Ages to the present, in Britain and beyond. It considers production and consumption, wealth and poverty in and across a number of spheres such as domestic space, welfare systems and global markets, and from a number of perspectives including economic and social theory, government policy and the voices of businessmen and women, workers and the poor.

We welcome papers that focus on specific situations, actors, and contexts and that include analyses of producers, employers, employees, consumers, market actors, citizens and migrants. Issues addressed in this strand include, amongst others:

household budgets, domestic economies and standards of living

the ethics of consumption, luxury, social standards, sustainability and environmentalism

civil society, the state and the economic and political order

intellectuals, economic theory, social critique and the making (or unmaking) of social and market structures

globalisation, divergence/convergence, ‘core-periphery’ and other models in global history

culture and economy, the business of culture, the culture(s) of business, innovation and speculation

social and cultural worlds of work, the factory and other workplaces as social and cultural spaces

the role of media, communication, marketing/advertising and product cultures in the ‘Western world’ and across global cultures